Saunders Released Yet Again

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When the Texas Rangers' season began, Joe Saunders was in the starting rotation thanks to a long list of pitching injuries before the Rangers even broke spring training in Arizona.

He had one decent stretch of four games for the Rangers, but was otherwise pretty terrible and was designated for assignment in early July before signing a minor-league deal with the Kansas City Royals. On Thursday, Saunders met the same fate from the Royals, when he was cut loose before ever seeing time with the Royals' big-league club.

Saunders, a veteran lefty, was 1-2 with a 6.75 ERA in his four starts with Kansas City's Triple-A affiliate in Omaha, continuing a bad run of pitching that began with his final few starts for the Rangers.

In his last three starts with Texas, Saunders never made it into the sixth inning and had an ERA of 11.20 and an 0-3 record. That followed a four-start run when he never allowed more than two earned runs. He finished his Rangers career with an 0-5 record and a 6.13 ERA.